I don't understand how when Apple sells 60000 it is a huge success but when palm debuts in the U.S. with 90000 or the Droid debuts with 110000 those phones are failures. Sometimes this website contradicts itself. Just my opinion. My friend Penn was one of those 60000 purchasers! Go penn!
Looking at simple population numbers could help make sense of the situation. South Korea has a population of 48 million while the US population is over 300 million. So the "same" or similar results in both markets could have varying meanings. There is also the issue of how open a market is. For instance, Nokia, the market leader worldwide recently withdrew entirely from the Japanese market. This corresponds to the idea that some Asian markets include factors that inhibit the success of foreign companies. One specific factor is that foreign companies have to compete against gray market versions. Often consumers have the choice of buying identical units for considerably less from unofficial sources that aren't counted in statistics. So the result in Korea is surprisingly strong.
One specific factor is that foreign companies have to compete against gray market versions. Often consumers have the choice of buying identical units for considerably less from unofficial sources that aren't counted in statistics. So the result in Korea is surprisingly strong.
One factor that seems to have helped the iPhone get this comparatively phenomenal figure is the lack of a grey or black market for cellphones in S. Korea. They require a valid IMEI to activate a phone, something most countries only use for locating stolen phones.
For better or worse, I live in South Korea and will have to say that its mobile market has largely been misunderstood. There is next to now usage of non-mobile specific internet, and even mobile-branded internet is rudimentary. Phones are considered high-tech by the cute model who sells them and are abandoned 6 months later.
South Korea will be shocked this year and next as phones from other countries which are purportedly inferior, sweep into this market, showing up everything S. Korea has put out. The iPhone is the champion right now and will continue to be so. Koreans are more 'designy' than techie and the iPhone does it all whilst providing a stable platform for anyone to adapt to.
60 000 is a huge number because only this year have smartphones even evolved from the mire of horrid flip and candy bar phones. 60 000 is only the start and in this country, is enough to probably upset what has been the worst monopoly I have seen run in any country: Samsung.
when I buy groceries, they are smansung, cars are samsung, hotels, parks, theme rides, salt, fruit: everything here is samsung which accounts for 20% of the countries exports alone and who knows how much of its GDP. S. Korea has protected its big companies for so long, now to the point that the big companies control the country.
So, if any foreign phone, and especially the iPhone which comes with a shite data plan and in an economy that often marks Apple up to 50% and sells the old stuff as new, can sell 60 000, it would be way more than the equivalent of 700 000 at launch weekend in America.
If we are just looking at Apple’s financials then Korea’s 60K isn’t nearly as good as the 700K for the original iPhone launch weekend, but we have to consider other factors at play. Apple has captured 15% of the S. Korean smartphone since launch while they have yet to do that in any other country I am aware of. I think they have more than 15% of AT&T’s smartphone market, maybe even their handset market, but they don’t have those figures for the whole of the US. Here are some other numbers that show the vast differences in country size.
US population: ~308M
S. Korean Population: ~48M
US mobile subscribers: ~277M
S.Koreans mobile subscribers: ~44M
US smartphone customers: More than 10M?
S. Korean smartphone customers: ~300K (prior to iPhone launch)
Let’s not forget that Apple is an American company doing business in S. Korea where they apparently have "such advanced tech that Apple is woefully behind in every way.”
"Apparently" is right. Although to read the Korean English language *cough* newspapers (read: ad vehicles for local companies which heavily support said 'newspapers') you'd swear Korea was the most technologically advanced nation on the planet and that everyone else was way behind LG, Samsung, etc. However, I lived there for several years and was constantly dismayed at the lack of up-to-date foreign (non-Korean) phone offerings in the shops. Yes, they sold Nokia, but the models available always seemed to be the six-month old or year-old models, not the most recent Nokia models. By contrast, the local models were easily available, heavily promoted and usually cheaper for what you got. Blackberries, arguably one of the most advanced devices anywhere, were completely unavailable to the general public, possibly prohibited by the industry "chaebols" and government. But this had nothing to do with local technology being necessarily "more advanced" . Years ago a friend, after much looking, eventually managed to get one of the early white iMacs and a Korean colleague, mirroring Apple ads, actually said "Nice screen, but where's the computer?" To be fair, I believe they now have several Apple shops in Korea, but all in all I found the LG and Samsung offerings to be a bit expensive and not exceptional in any way, and this was before the iPhone came out. When Jobs unveiled the iPhone in January 2007, several Samsung workers I knew told me the shock of its capabilities made them feel "depressed". And fair enough. But industrial protectionism extended to other sectors as well. I don't recall seeing Fords or Toyotas or Volkswagons, almost all the cars on the roads were Kia or Hyundai or other local brands. Part of this was industrial policy to keep foreign stuff out or too highly priced; the other was a very real nationalism among Korean consumers to support local industry (who can blame them for that?) But I do think that if American industries and our government responded in kind some of the Asian companies would be in an uproar. On the other hand, maybe protectionism is the way to go to bolster our domestic market share.
Wow did not realize how few phones sold in china. yikes. I guess apple should pay the stock holders back and sell the business.
Credit the Chinese consumer with enough common sense and knowledge of "the word on the street".
There are enough grey market iPhones in China (I hear they number in the low millions) for the average smart phone enthusiast to know that Wi-Fi is included everywhere else but the official channels in their country. After all, every iPhone regardless of destination market is assembled there...
It may well be common knowledge also that China has backed down over its insistence on its own WLAN standard, and that this development came too late for China's 1st generation iPhone. They must realise that Wi-Fi enabled iPhones are a matter of time, and possibly the next iteration. So why not wait?
In pretty much the same way many consumers worldwide (myself included) held out for the 3G version of the iPhone before jumping on the bandwagon.
But I do think that if American industries and our government responded in kind some of the Asian companies would be in an uproar. On the other hand, maybe protectionism is the way to go to bolster our domestic market share.
Maybe you have been out of the US too long, your industries, and your government does do that.
For instance, Nokia, the market leader worldwide recently withdrew entirely from the Japanese market.
Recently? You have a strange definition of recently, they did this a year ago, and they didn't pull out entirely, they still sell the Vertu brand there.
Comments
I don't understand how when Apple sells 60000 it is a huge success but when palm debuts in the U.S. with 90000 or the Droid debuts with 110000 those phones are failures. Sometimes this website contradicts itself. Just my opinion. My friend Penn was one of those 60000 purchasers! Go penn!
Looking at simple population numbers could help make sense of the situation. South Korea has a population of 48 million while the US population is over 300 million. So the "same" or similar results in both markets could have varying meanings. There is also the issue of how open a market is. For instance, Nokia, the market leader worldwide recently withdrew entirely from the Japanese market. This corresponds to the idea that some Asian markets include factors that inhibit the success of foreign companies. One specific factor is that foreign companies have to compete against gray market versions. Often consumers have the choice of buying identical units for considerably less from unofficial sources that aren't counted in statistics. So the result in Korea is surprisingly strong.
One specific factor is that foreign companies have to compete against gray market versions. Often consumers have the choice of buying identical units for considerably less from unofficial sources that aren't counted in statistics. So the result in Korea is surprisingly strong.
One factor that seems to have helped the iPhone get this comparatively phenomenal figure is the lack of a grey or black market for cellphones in S. Korea. They require a valid IMEI to activate a phone, something most countries only use for locating stolen phones.
South Korea will be shocked this year and next as phones from other countries which are purportedly inferior, sweep into this market, showing up everything S. Korea has put out. The iPhone is the champion right now and will continue to be so. Koreans are more 'designy' than techie and the iPhone does it all whilst providing a stable platform for anyone to adapt to.
60 000 is a huge number because only this year have smartphones even evolved from the mire of horrid flip and candy bar phones. 60 000 is only the start and in this country, is enough to probably upset what has been the worst monopoly I have seen run in any country: Samsung.
when I buy groceries, they are smansung, cars are samsung, hotels, parks, theme rides, salt, fruit: everything here is samsung which accounts for 20% of the countries exports alone and who knows how much of its GDP. S. Korea has protected its big companies for so long, now to the point that the big companies control the country.
So, if any foreign phone, and especially the iPhone which comes with a shite data plan and in an economy that often marks Apple up to 50% and sells the old stuff as new, can sell 60 000, it would be way more than the equivalent of 700 000 at launch weekend in America.
There simply is no common reference point.
If we are just looking at Apple’s financials then Korea’s 60K isn’t nearly as good as the 700K for the original iPhone launch weekend, but we have to consider other factors at play. Apple has captured 15% of the S. Korean smartphone since launch while they have yet to do that in any other country I am aware of. I think they have more than 15% of AT&T’s smartphone market, maybe even their handset market, but they don’t have those figures for the whole of the US. Here are some other numbers that show the vast differences in country size. Let’s not forget that Apple is an American company doing business in S. Korea where they apparently have "such advanced tech that Apple is woefully behind in every way.”
"Apparently" is right. Although to read the Korean English language *cough* newspapers (read: ad vehicles for local companies which heavily support said 'newspapers') you'd swear Korea was the most technologically advanced nation on the planet and that everyone else was way behind LG, Samsung, etc. However, I lived there for several years and was constantly dismayed at the lack of up-to-date foreign (non-Korean) phone offerings in the shops. Yes, they sold Nokia, but the models available always seemed to be the six-month old or year-old models, not the most recent Nokia models. By contrast, the local models were easily available, heavily promoted and usually cheaper for what you got. Blackberries, arguably one of the most advanced devices anywhere, were completely unavailable to the general public, possibly prohibited by the industry "chaebols" and government. But this had nothing to do with local technology being necessarily "more advanced" . Years ago a friend, after much looking, eventually managed to get one of the early white iMacs and a Korean colleague, mirroring Apple ads, actually said "Nice screen, but where's the computer?"
Wow did not realize how few phones sold in china. yikes. I guess apple should pay the stock holders back and sell the business.
Credit the Chinese consumer with enough common sense and knowledge of "the word on the street".
There are enough grey market iPhones in China (I hear they number in the low millions) for the average smart phone enthusiast to know that Wi-Fi is included everywhere else but the official channels in their country. After all, every iPhone regardless of destination market is assembled there...
It may well be common knowledge also that China has backed down over its insistence on its own WLAN standard, and that this development came too late for China's 1st generation iPhone. They must realise that Wi-Fi enabled iPhones are a matter of time, and possibly the next iteration. So why not wait?
In pretty much the same way many consumers worldwide (myself included) held out for the 3G version of the iPhone before jumping on the bandwagon.
But I do think that if American industries and our government responded in kind some of the Asian companies would be in an uproar. On the other hand, maybe protectionism is the way to go to bolster our domestic market share.
Maybe you have been out of the US too long, your industries, and your government does do that.
For instance, Nokia, the market leader worldwide recently withdrew entirely from the Japanese market.
Recently? You have a strange definition of recently, they did this a year ago, and they didn't pull out entirely, they still sell the Vertu brand there.